Health Commissioner Dr. James Enyeart, who evaluated Migliozzi and Mokosh, said he recommended that the board grant the payments.

Enyeart said the payments are less than the average overtime paid to workers supervised by Migliozzi and Mokosh, who are paid the same salary, about $72,000 a year. The department paid out close to $40,000 in overtime last year, Enyeart said.

He said Migliozzi and Mokosh ''perform impeccably.'' In addition, Enyeart said the two are on call day and night and have very serious responsibilities, ''direct public health responsibilities.''

''I have no other way to describe all the extra time and effort Frank and Debbie put in,'' Enyeart said.

Enyeart said similar bonuses were awarded for work done in 2011. Enyeart said he received $2,500 for 2011 but nothing this year.

Migliozzi and Mokosh did not, nor did any other non-bargaining unit worker at the health department, receive the 2 percent pay increase given to bargaining unit employees for 2012.

Board members Bill Hagood, the chairman and Bob Biery, Pat DiTomasso and Denise Allen didn't respond to messages to talk about the bonuses. Board member Dale Appis deferred comment to Hagood.

Another bonus given to a public employee this year generated some controversy.

The Western Reserve Port Authority, which oversees the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, awarded, and then took away, a $7,500 bonus for airport Aviation Director Dan Dickten after commissioners rolled back a portion of the funding the county provides to the port authority.

The rollback was commissioners' way to show their displeasure with granting the bonus, not of the job being done by Dickten, who declined to accept the money after commissioners cut funding.

They also did it to nudge commissioners in Mahoning County to increase the amount they give to run the port authority.

Trumbull commissioners said the bonus sent a bad message to Trumbull County workers, whose wages have been frozen. Also, they wanted greater parity between the contributions of the counties.

Dickten's bonus was 10 percent of his annual salary. The bonuses given to Migliozzi and Mokosh are much less, about 3.5 percent of what they make in a year.

But if commissioners are even slightly upset about the board of health's action, they are powerless, unlike the situation involving the port authority, to do anything about it if they wanted.

Commissioners don't appoint members of the health board. That's the job primarily of the advisory council, which has the ability to appoint four members, and the licensing council, which can appoint one member. Also, commissioner's don't control any of the health department's money.